“Flea markets are a hands-on eBay,” says Gratz. “They’re important to our economy, even though they probably don’t show up anywhere. They’re a very useful form of recycling and a necessary source of affordably priced stuff.”

Cycling advocates acknowledge that progress with forming policies that support and adequately fund biking may be slow at the national level, but many see a wave of action swelling up from below – at the city level, where exasperated mayors are connecting the dots.

Daniel Goldstein, a spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, said the new design is “still way too big, and does not change the fact of 16 skyscrapers slammed on top of and next to low-rise, historic neighborhoods.” Frank Gehry, the project’s architect, and Laurie Olin, its landscape designer, emphasized details that they said would harmonize [...]

“Jane Jacobs didn’t trust urban planners. She once told me that planners would call her all the time and tell her what great work they were doing in her name. Then she would find out that they were following the same old pattern she was opposed to.” Urban Planner Thomas G. Lunke reflects on the [...]

Jane Jacobs’ ideas about how to create great cities are more popular and important than ever. Her death last week at age 89 has drawn even more attention to her wisdom that basic observation of what a makes neighborhoods work is the best guide to good urban planning, rather than the grandiose but often mistaken [...]

Jane Jacobs’ ideas about how to create great cities are more popular and important than ever. Her death last week at age 89 has drawn even more attention to her wisdom that basic observation of what a makes neighborhoods work is the best guide to good urban planning, rather than the grandiose but often mistaken [...]